Welsh Rabbit

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

Welsh rabbit a savoury which is normally understood to consist essentially in a piece of toast with melted cheese on it. This description would, however, have seemed quite inadequate to Lady Llanover (1867), whose own account of the matter, given the engaging and eccentric manner in which she annexed to herself the whole subject of Welsh cookery, must be given priority:

Welsh toasted cheese and the melted cheese of England are as different in the mode of preparation as is the cheese itself; the one being only adapted to strong digestions, and the other being so easily digested that the Hermit frequently gave it to his invalid patients when they were recovering from illness. Cut a slice of the real Welsh cheese, made of sheep and cow’s milk; toast a piece of bread less than a quarter of an inch thick, to be quite crisp, and spread it very thinly with fresh cold butter on one side (it must not be saturated with butter); then lay the toasted cheese upon the bread, and serve immediately on a very hot plate. The butter on the toast can of course be omitted if not liked, and it is more frequently eaten without butter.